We’ve pointed out in recent several months North Carolina’s policymakers’ harmful tax and spending decisions. The combination of tax cuts that benefit the wealthy, cuts to programs that support the state’s working families, and reduced investments in education and other key services will keep North Carolina from competing in the...

This year's state tax debates have revealed a very important flaw in how states typically make tax policy. Fortunately, it's a flaw that can be fixed.

In most states, policymakers lack sufficient information on how tax changes will affect the after-tax distribution of income. The solution is straightforward: states should be required to publish such information before lawmakers vote...

Kansas legislators passed a plan this past weekend to drain the state’s reserves, cut taxes for the rich, raise taxes for many lower-income families, and slash education in the process. The state is on a path to ruin unless it changes course.

The new budget is designed to move the state toward Governor Sam Brownback’s stated goal of totally repealing the income tax. ...

To accompany our Top 10 Federal Tax Charts, here are five charts focusing on state tax issues.

First, let’s look at what state taxes pay for. By far the largest areas of state spending, on average, are education (both K-12 and higher education) and health care, as the first chart, below, shows.
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We rely on states and localities to provide public services like education, health care, and infrastructure that lay the groundwork for a prosperous future. But as we describe in a new paper, four serious challenges threaten their ability to pay for those programs.

We warned last week that a number of state proposals to swap their income taxes for sales taxes would be ill-advised. Those proposals would only worsen tax systems that are already highly regressive, as a new report from the...